Assisted Fertility Treatments

In 2007, two-embryo transfers continued to have better outcomes than single-embryo transfers, although the differences have balanced out clearly over the last few years. After 2006, there has been a clear levelling out between the outcomes of FETs in particular.

According to the 2007 statistics, 57.8 per cent of IVF and ICSI transfers and 57.4 per cent of FETs were single-embryo transfers. Preliminary data for 2007 suggest that the percentages have increased to 62.4 and 58.7, respectively. Elective single-embryo FETs accounted for 38.9 per cent of all IVF and ICSI transfers in 2007. In these treatments, the best embryo is chosen from at least two embryos with good quality.

Clinics separately reported the outcomes of elective single-embryo IVF and ICSI transfers: Of 1605 transfers, a total of 557 led to a clinical pregnancy (34.7%) and 447 to a live birth (27.9%). The corresponding figures one year earlier were 1-2 percentage points lower, at 33.8 per cent and 25.8 per cent, respectively. I

n 2007, the outcomes of infertility treatments improved somewhat compared with the previous year. A total of 24.7 per cent (23.2% in 2006) of started ICSI treatments and 18.1 per cent (17.7% in 2006) of FETs resulted in a live birth. The outcomes of IVF transfers remained at the same level as the previous year (23.0% led to a live birth).

Table 2. Transfers, clinical pregnancies and deliveries with live births by the number of embryos transferred and type of treatment, 2007

A total of 1994 infants were born in 1787 deliveries as a result of the IVF treatments performed in 2007. This is 3.1 per cent of all deliveries and 3.4 per cent of all infants born during that year. These percentages were at the same level as the previous year.

In 2007, the share of multiple deliveries was 10.8 per cent, which is slightly less than in 2006. Twin deliveries totalled 164 (328 infants) and triplet deliveries totalled 3 (9 infants). According to THL's Medical Birth Register, multiple births accounted for 1.5 per cent of all deliveries in 2007 (with 11 triplet deliveries). This shows that assisted reproduction still involves a high risk of multiple gestation. Multiple gestation in turn increases pregnancy-related risks for both the mother and the child. Nevertheless, the share of multiple deliveries in conjunction with assisted reproduction has clearly decreased (in 1993, multiple deliveries still accounted for a 27% share), as a result of improvements in the method of freezing embryos, for instance, which have made possible a significant increase in the number of single-embryo transfers.

In 2007, 20.5 per cent of pregnancies following assisted reproduction treatment ended in miscarriage and 1.9 per cent in extrauterine pregnancy. Here, the risk of miscarriage can be estimated to be at the same level as in spontaneous pregnancies, but the risk of extrauterine pregnancy is higher. Based on the 2007 data, the risk of perinatal mortality (stillbirths and deaths under one week) seems to be slightly higher after assisted reproduction treatment than in spontaneous pregnancies: after assisted production treatment, the perinatal mortality rate was 8 deaths per 1000 live births, compared to 5 deaths per 1000 live births for all pregnancies.